Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission - Fish and Wildlife Research Institute 20171107 vector digital data Tallahassee, FL Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission - Fish and Wildlife Research Institute State of Florida http://geodata.myfwc.com/ This dataset contains Critical Wildlife Area (CWA) Boundaries in the State of Florida. CWAs are established by the FWC under a Florida Administration Code rule to protect important wildlife concentrations from human disturbance during critical periods of their life cycles, such as nesting or migration. For each CWA, the boundaries and periods of time when portions of the area may be posted are defined in the CWA establishment order. Public access is prohibited within CWAs if posted, "Closed to public access." Dogs, vehicles and vessels are also prohibited from posted areas. The boundary may be larger than the posted area due to the dynamic nature of habitat structure and use. Thus, the area closed each year may change. Please Note: This dataset is not complete and is only a place holder, many of the polygons present are only 100m buffers of the CWA point layer available on the FWC_OpenData Portal. To cartographically represent Critical Wildlife Areas. Gerome's Cave is an underground cave and has not been mapped and therefore not included in this dataset. Management of Critical Wildlife Areas is multi-faceted. Posting of the areas, maintenance and removal of the signs is coordinated by the FWC with the assistance of partners. Monitoring the birds is done by FWC biologists, Audubon Florida staff, volunteers and partners. The FWC and partners also engage in habitat management such as removal of exotic plants and predator control. Protection efforts are coordinated with local government, other agencies, organizations and FWC law enforcement personnel, as appropriate. Almost all active CWAs support listed species, the most notable of which include: Alafia Banks (wading birds, oystercatchers and pelican rookeries); ABC Islands (wading birds and pelican rookeries); Fort George Inlet (terns and black skimmers); St. George Causeway (least terns); and Big Marco Pass (least terns, black skimmers, plovers and wintering shorebirds). *** Management of Critical Wildlife Areas *** Limiting human-wildlife conflicts in the coastal zone, specifically in Critical Wildlife Areas, is a high priority. Human-wildlife conflicts increase as the human population increases and areas available to wildlife decrease. Even with the protections provided by the CWA, conflicts still occur and additional management strategies are needed to reduce human-wildlife conflicts and to maintain habitat suitability for wildlife. Many CWAs currently provide significant habitat for nesting, roosting, or foraging seabirds, shorebirds or wading birds. The strategies described below focus on current and proposed management at these sites, and potentially any other future CWA. These strategies are necessary to minimize disturbance and enhance habitat. - Post sites annually. Pre-post historically used breeding sites whenever feasible. Posting establishes a buffer zone with signs and/or symbolic fencing to help prevent people, pets, vehicles and vessels from getting harmfully close to nests, roosts, or foraging areas. - Work with local government, conservation organizations, and property/land managers to develop vegetation management practices that will promote breeding. Vegetation management should only be used when historical beach nesting habitat has become unusable due to vegetation succession or when appropriate nesting habitat is scarce within the CWA boundary due to encroachment by native or non-native coastal plants due to a lack of overwash from storms or hurricanes. Removal of exotic vegetation, particularly any perches or nesting substrate for predators (e.g. Australian pines) is of highest priority. - Identify opportunities for habitat creation. Efforts to protect remaining suitable habitat and to limit disturbance of nesting birds may not be sufficient to prevent declines. The creation of suitable nesting habitat may be a partial solution. Nesting habitat may be created by depositing dredged material (spoil) in coastal areas. Barges or rafts could be placed or constructed and outfitted with sand and/or gravel and be used as artificial nesting habitat. Similarly elevated platforms with sand and/or gravel could be placed within CWAs. - Develop Best Management Practices for predator control. FWC will coordinate with U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services, and other institutions as necessary to develop Best Management Practices (BMPs) for mammalian and avian predator control where problems exist. - Identify sites that are subject to recurrent, problematic overwash and erosion and implement appropriate restoration measures. FWC and partners will work with local governments and FDEP on plans for erosion control projects to ensure that plans do not conflict with CWAs. - Seek management authority and funding for breeding sites on unmanaged state lands. Some CWAs occur on unmanaged state lands, meaning they are not under the jurisdiction of a state agency such as FWC, the Florida Park Service, or the Florida Forest Service. These lands are under the jurisdiction of FDEP’s Division of State Lands. These sites have no staff or funds dedicated to their management. - Educate the public about the consequences of disturbance, habitat loss, and other threats to birds through appropriate mediums. The general public, especially beach-goers and recreationists, should be made aware of nesting and foraging species within CWAs, and that certain activities may disturb them. They should be encouraged to be sensitive and minimize disturbance through various educational and outreach channels. - Develop strong coordination between law enforcement officers, non-sworn staff, and partners to monitor disturbance. - Determine breeding population and productivity annually. *** New CWA designations and modifications *** On November 16, 2016, FWC Commissioners approved the proposal to designate 13 new CWAs and improve five existing CWAs. Prior to this approval, the FWC held 14 public workshops across the state to discuss the proposed designation or modification of each CWA. At these workshops, the FWC explained how CWAs are established, the reason why they are needed and answered questions. Through this process and from written comments the FWC gathered important information from the public which resulted in modifications to the proposal. FWC staff brought the final proposal for the new CWA designations and modifications before the Commission at the November meeting in St. Petersburg. Each CWA is finalized when the establishment order is signed by the Executive Director. Once established, signs can be posted as described in the establishment order. Many of the new sites include in-water postings, which require permitting through the FWC’s Boating and Waterways Section, the Army Corp of Engineers, and the US Coast Guard. Finalizing establishment orders and permitting of in-water postings is in progress for all sites. 20150201 20171107 publication date Complete As needed -85.587866 -79.929232 30.545611 24.466768 ISO 19115 Topic Category biota None CWA Critical Wildlife Areas None Florida None 2017 These data are unrestricted. Where possible, always acquire this dataset directly from FWC as other sources may have altered the original data. Users are encouraged to read and fully comprehend the metadata record prior to using these data. Please acknowledge the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) as the data source for any products developed from these data. Users should be aware that comparison with other data sets for the same area may be inaccurate due to inconsistencies resulting from changes in mapping conventions, data collection techniques, and computer processes over time. FWC shall not be liable for improper or incorrect use of these data. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission - Fish and Wildlife Research Institute Michelle Vandeventer CWA Coordinator mailing and physical

620 S. Meridian St. (Farris Bryant Building)

Tallahassee FL 32399-1600 US (850) 488-4676 Michelle.Vandeventer@MyFWC.com GISRequests@MyFWC.com Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission - Fish and Wildlife Research Institute Version 6.2 (Build 9200) ; Esri ArcGIS 10.7.1.11595 Critical Wildlife Areas http://myfwc.com/conservation/terrestrial/cwa/ GeoPlan relied on the integrity of the attribute information within the original data. This data is provided 'as is'. GeoPlan relied on the integrity of the original data layer's topology This data is provided 'as is' by GeoPlan and is complete to our knowledge. This data is provided 'as is' and its horizontal positional accuracy has not been verified by GeoPlan This data is provided 'as is' and its vertical positional accuracy has not been verified by GeoPlan 0 onLine Spatial and Attribute Information KMLs were provided for 17 areas and 1 shapefile for one area by the CWA Coordinator. The KMLs were converted to shapefile using the KML to Layer conversion tool in ArcMap 10.2.2. This shapefile was merged with the provided shapefile. Then projected into the current coordinate system using the Project data management tool with the WGS_1984_(ITRF00)_To_NAD_1983_HARN transformation. Attribute information was acquired from http://myfwc.com/conservation/terrestrial/cwa/. FWC 20150219 The GeoPlan Center acquired the following dataset from Michelle Vandeventer with FWC on November 6th, 2017. CWA_InWaterMarkers.kmz Projection: GCS_WGS_1984 *** Dataset Note *** These are the in-water marker locations for newly established Critical Wildlife Areas. Not all of these sites have been posted yet, but I believe (with exception of Useppa), they have all received permits. This provides an outline of areas that will be posted closed (either year-round or seasonally) for these particular CWAs. As described on our phone call, the FWC posts an area within the boundary described in the Establishment Order for each CWA, at a distance from shore no greater than that approved by the Commission. For some CWAs, only emergent lands are allowed to be posted (no in-water posting) but the boundary is described in a way that accommodates for accretion given how dynamic many of these sites are. The Useppa Oyster Bar was approved but is not established due to ownership issues discovered during title search. ******************************************************************************** GeoPlan reprojected the data to NAD83 Florida HARN and renamed the dataset to CWABND_NOV17.shp Where existing CWA data occurred but was not covered by data within the .KMZ file GeoPlan downloaded Critical Wildlife Areas point data locations from the FWC's FWC_OpenData Portal. http://geodata.myfwc.com This point data was also reprojected to NAD83 Florida HARN and buffered by 100m. The missing 100m buffer boundaries were then appended to the CWABND_NOV17.shp dataset. Tabular data from the Critical Wildlife Areas point data was cross walked over and added to the polygon layer. GeoPlan then added several standard and QAQC tracking fields. Next metadata was created using the Critical Wildlife Areas point data metadata and information from the FWC CWA website and pdf. Website: http://myfwc.com/conservation/terrestrial/cwa/ PDF: http://myfwc.com/media/4110761/cwa-post-meeting.pdf Please Note: This dataset should only be used for notification purposes and is only a placeholder until the missing 100m boundary features can be updated and completed by FWC. GeoPlan 20171107 Vector GT-polygon composed of chains 39 NAD 1983 HARN Florida GDL Albers 24.0 31.5 -84.0 24.0 400000.0 0.0 coordinate pair 0.0001 0.0001 meter D North American 1983 HARN GRS 1980 6378137.0 298.257222101 CWABND_NOV17 CWABND_NOV17.DBF FWC OBJECTID Internal feature number. ESRI Sequential unique whole numbers that are automatically generated. Shape Feature geometry. Esri Coordinates defining the features. NAME Name of critical wildlife area. FWC CLOSEDATES Time of year the area is closed to the public. FWC FOCALSPP Wildlife species that are being protected by the closure. FWC COUNTY Name of the county the critical wildlife area is located in. FWC CWA_NO Critical Wildlife Area Identification Number. FWC CWA_DESC Critical Wildlife Area Description. FWC LATITUDE Latitude in Decimal Degrees of the CWA polygon's centroid. GeoPlan LONGITUDE Longitude in Decimal Degrees of the CWA polygon's centroid. GeoPlan WEBSITE Critical Wildlife Areas (CWAs) FWC website link. GeoPlan NEW_RE_CWA New Critical Wildlife Areas (CWAs) PDF link. GeoPlan CWA_LOC Critical Wildlife Areas (CWAs) additional location information. GeoPlan ACRES Area of CWA in acres. FWC DESCRIPT Field added by FGDL based on NAME GeoPlan FLAG Feature Verification. GeoPlan NV Not Verified - Feature was not verified against the existing information available in the following FWC PDF: http://myfwc.com/media/4110761/cwa-post-meeting.pdf GeoPlan NV100 Not Verified - Polygon was created from a 100m buffer of the CWA point feature. GeoPlan NVGC GeoPlan Not Verified - GeoPlan Center created polygon due to single Withlacoochee Cave 100m polygon feature's location being an extreme distance from the true cave locations. V Verified - Feature was verified against the existing information available in the following FWC PDF: http://myfwc.com/media/4110761/cwa-post-meeting.pdf GeoPlan UPDATE_DAY The date the data was last updated by the source. GeoPlan FGDLAQDATE The date FGDL acquired the data from the source. GeoPlan AUTOID Unique ID added by GeoPlan GeoPlan SHAPE.AREA Area in meters GeoPlan SHAPE.LEN Perimeter in meters GeoPlan Florida Geographic Data Library (FGDL) mailing

431 Architecture PO Box 115706

Gainesville Florida 32611-5706 US For FGDL Software: http://www.fgdl.org/software.html Web site: http://www.fgdl.org FGDL Frequently Asked Questions: http://www.fgdl.org/fgdlfaq.html Mailing list for FGDL: http://www.fgdl.org/fgdl-l.html Technical Support: http://www.fgdl.org/fgdlfeed.html DOWNLOADABLE DATA The Florida Geographic Data Library is a collection of Geospatial Data compiled by the University of Florida GeoPlan Center with support from the Florida Department of Transportation. GIS data available in FGDL is collected from various state, federal, and other agencies (data sources) who are data stewards, producers, or publishers. The data available in FGDL may not be the most current version of the data offered by the data source. University of Florida GeoPlan Center makes no guarantees about the currentness of the data and suggests that data users check with the data source to see if more recent versions of the data exist. Furthermore, the GIS data available in the FGDL are provided 'as is'. The University of Florida GeoPlan Center makes no warranties, guaranties or representations as to the truth, accuracy or completeness of the data provided by the data sources. The University of Florida GeoPlan Center makes no representations or warranties about the quality or suitability of the materials, either expressly or implied, including but not limited to any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement. The University of Florida GeoPlan Center shall not be liable for any damages suffered as a result of using, modifying, contributing or distributing the materials. A note about data scale: Scale is an important factor in data usage. Certain scale datasets are not suitable for some project, analysis, or modeling purposes. Please be sure you are using the best available data. 1:24000 scale datasets are recommended for projects that are at the county level. 1:24000 data should NOT be used for high accuracy base mapping such as property parcel boundaries. 1:100000 scale datasets are recommended for projects that are at the multi-county or regional level. 1:125000 scale datasets are recommended for projects that are at the regional or state level or larger. Vector datasets with no defined scale or accuracy should be considered suspect. Make sure you are familiar with your data before using it for projects or analysis. Every effort has been made to supply the user with data documentation. For additional information, see the References section and the Data Source Contact section of this documentation. For more information regarding scale and accuracy, see our webpage at: http://geoplan.ufl.edu/education.html 20200303 Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission - Fish and Wildlife Research Institute Michelle Vandeventer CWA Coordinator mailing and physical

620 S. Meridian St. (Farris Bryant Building)

Tallahassee FL 32399-1600 US (850) 488-4676 Michelle.Vandeventer@MyFWC.com GISRequests@MyFWC.com FGDC Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata FGDC-STD-001-1998 local time